Max Is Removing the Last Looney Tunes Shorts From Streaming

Update: A Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson says classic Looney Tunes was "included in error as a title leaving the platform" in the company's official release for what's new and what's leaving Max for December 2023. "This is not the case and the show will continue streaming on Max," the spokesperson said. The original report follows.

That's all, folks: Looney Tunes is leaving Max. Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed Monday that the last of the classic Looney Tunes shorts will leave the streaming platform on December 31. In addition, Max is set to remove the 2003 live-action/animated movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action and all 52 episodes of the 2011 series The Looney Tunes Show. The company already pulled over 250 Looney Tunes episodes from the platform at the end of 2022, purging seasons 16-31 (1950—2004) of the original Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes library. Seasons 1-15 (1930—1949), consisting of 255 shorts, remained on the service — but on January 1, 2024, subscribers will no longer be able to stream the classic Looney Tunes cartoons on Max.

Amid the first Looney Tunes content purge, Variety reported that Warner Bros. licensed Looney Tunes to its own streaming service (then HBO Max) and did not renew the licensing agreements when they expired at the end of 2022. It seems that Max has opted not to renew its license for the first 15 seasons and will let it expire on Dec. 31.

Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Looney Tunes shows that will remain on Max beyond Dec. 31 include new series Tiny Toons Looniversity and preschool series Bugs Bunny Builders. Other titles that will remain available include two seasons of New Looney Tunes, five seasons of Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries, six seasons of Max Original Looney Tunes Cartoons, the four-part Bugs and Daffy's Thanksgiving Road Trip podcast, and the films Space Jam (1996), Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021), and King Tweety (2022).

In 2022, the company also removed series like Westworld, The Nevers, Generation, FBoy Island, Legendary, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Gordita Chronicles, and Raised by Wolves as part of CEO David Zaslav's cost-cutting measures; Max later deleted more than 100 episodes of Impractical Jokers and culled Cartoon Network and Adult Swim content. Some of those shows were shopped to FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) services; others, like the animated series Final Space, were wiped from the internet entirely.

Coyote vs. Acme — a live-action/animated movie starring John Cena and Wile E. Coyote — was the latest Looney Tunes project axed at Warner Bros. for a reported $30 million tax write-down, but the studio reversed that decision and will shop the completed movie rather than scrap it.

Want to watch Looney Tunes online? Max subscribers won't be able to stream seasons 1-15 after Dec. 31, but those episodes — and the 256 episodes removed last Dec. 31 — are currently available for digital purchase on Apple TV (priced $0.99—$2.99 per episode.) Ain't that a stinker?